3 Tips For Using Water To Enhance Your Images Page 2

Tip #3: Rainbows
You'll find rainbows when you are between the sun and water droplets of
the right size. We most often notice them during clearing storms when facing
away from the early-morning or late-afternoon sun, but they can also appear
in waterfalls and sprinkler spray--anytime the sun angle and water drop
size are right. Keep your camera ready when storms clear, and keep an eye out
for rainbows anytime there's water in the air.

When an early-morning or late-afternoon storm is clearing, turn
your back on the sun and you just might see a rainbow. While a
polarizing filter might enhance the colors, you don't need
special gear or techniques to get good rainbow photos. This one
was shot with a consumer digicam in "Auto-Everything"
mode.

Rainbows can occur anytime you're between the sun and
water droplets of the right size. This rainbow appeared in park
sprinklers one morning, and was recorded with a 300mm lens on
a digital SLR. It's a good idea to focus manually when
shooting rainbows; autofocus systems sometimes have trouble
with them.

Protection
Water can give you some great photos. But it can also damage your camera, lenses
and other photo gear. Take care not to get your gear wet, unless you're
using gear that was designed specifically for that purpose. If you want to experiment
with rainy-day or ocean-spray photos, buy a waterproof single-use camera, and
use that--it should withstand just about any wet situation, and if it doesn't,
you're out less than $20.

Shutter Tip
To get long exposure times in brighter light, stop the lens down, and use a
slow film or a low ISO setting on a digital camera. You can also use a neutral-density
filter to reduce the amount of light reaching the film or image sensor, but
ND filters are quite expensive.